As believers, we are people who live in one dimension and yet hail from another.
It’s a difficult concept to deal with, but if we can grasp clearly the duality of our current existence, it helps us walk on a firmer foundation.
I remember reading Alice and the Looking Glass as a child. I was memorized by the idea of the parallel world going on just behind the mirror.
Yet, here in God’s Word, there are all kinds of hints pointing to just such a dimension running alongside of our very ordinary lives.
Moses was given a glimpse into this dimension while on Mount Sinai (Exodus 34:5). Obviously, there was no physical tabernacle already established on this mountaintop. Yet, Moses was directed to build the earthly tabernacle according to what he had seen in the heavenlies (Hebrews 8:5).
Paul talks about a time in which he was caught up into the “third heaven” and saw things which he couldn’t even talk about (2 Corinthians 12:2-4).
The Apostle John saw into this spiritual dimension while he was on the Isle of Patmos and related what he saw in the book of the Revelation (Revelation 1:9-12).
Most of our time on earth, our eyes are veiled from seeing what is truly going on just beside us in the spiritual realm. We’ve been told that there are spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenlies and that both angels and our prayers wage war against such powers (Ephesians 6:12; Jude 9; Luke 10:17; Revelation 8:3-5). But, like Elisha’s servant, we usually can’t see what is right before our face (2 Kings 6:17-18).
How then do we live in this world, but not of it? After all, we are not to be “of this world” (John 15:19).
1. Spend plenty of time allowing His Word to prick your heart.
Just as the sharpened Word of God can pierce through the veil of spirit and soul (Hebrews 4:12), the Word can also pierce through the veil lying over our spiritual insight (2 Corinthians 3:14-16). He is sharper than the mightiest scalpel.
2. As the razor-sharp, Living Word punctures the shroud of our darkened understanding,
Light for spiritual insight can beam in with warmth.
He is all about revelation and Light (Daniel 2:22). Just think, His very first creative act was Light (Genesis 1:3). His ernest desire is that our dim comprehension be impaled and split wide-open with His Truth.
3. When Truth perforates the veil, our response is to faithe.
Remember “faithing” Him is the only thing that we can do for Him (John 6:29). Faith is like the lasso that we throw through the opening and attach to Christ. We decide to fix our eyes there in His heavenly dimension rather than here on our earthly one. “Keep seeing the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth” (Colossians 3:1-2).
“For here (on earth), we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come.” (Hebrew 13:14)
“Open our eyes to live in Your realm, O Lord.”
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(Photo Courtesy of Tom Clark)